Banned in Rotherham (4/19) When Persian-speaking members of the Hexthorpe Methodist Church wanted to publicize their Easter play, the main public library in the British town of Rotherham told them they could not put posters alongside flyers advertising other local educational and theatrical events. Church members say they were told they couldn't put the flyer up because it might offend other people. A spokesman for the borough council says it has barred all religious groups from displaying posters in the library for 20 years. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...ch114.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/14/ixhome.html
"Rotherham metropolitan borough council explained that its ban applied to all of the religious, political and commercial groups in the district. A spokesman said: "We have had a policy in place for more than 20 years that religious groups are not allowed to display posters in our museums and libraries. "It is nothing against the particular church or group. It is just a blanket ban. It is not the poster or the event which is causing us concern. "We don't want to promote one religious group above another." So? Where's the problem? It's only Christians playing the usual persecution card, or do they want to be a special case for some reason or other?
the problem is that CHRISTIAN theatrical events cannot advertise in this PUBLIC forum, but secular ones can now, england doesn't HAVE a first amendment (or free speech i might add), but this is very typical advertising a RELIGIOUS play could offend people, but advertising the Vagina Monologues is ok! lol it's discrimination AGAINST religion. at least in america, if a public forum is open to advertisement of theatrical events, then one can't single out RELIGIOUS theatrical events from that forum of course if the forum was PRIVATELY owned, this would not be an issue the point is that a public forum excluded RELIGIOUS events from the same access to advertising that non-religious events have access to. it's discrimination AGAINST religious groups. fwiw, england is very different than the US in that they actually have an OFFICIAL religion (and a monarchy lol) in the US, we have a truly secular govt. even though we have far more religious people per capita than england.
this reminds me of a case that came out some time ago. a teacher asked the students in her class to come up with a historical figure that was heroic to them, for a paper topic one of the students chose jesus the teacher/school said that the student could not CHOOSE to write a paper on THIS topic, since that would violate "the seperation of church and state" um, no. first of all, the topic was the STUDENT's choice, and second of all, excluding JUST religious figures would be a violation since that would discriminate AGAINST religion anyways, when the advocacy groups started pressing the case, the school realized they were wrong and dropped the case just as an aside, i kind of wonder what would happen if the kid chose hitler, stalin, or mao! :l
I thought as much , it is the Christian's persecution complex again. No political and No commercial groups can advertise in the Public forum either. Neither can any other religious groups. No commercial or political theatre groups can adverise so, is it discrimination against commerce and politics too? Yet more Christian cry babies think they are to be treated special for some reason or other. Why should they. They are not so. They have a contentious point of view about how things should be, just as politicians do. Seems reasonable to exclude them from advertising on the same grounds as the politicians are. Commerce has the best argument for being discriminated against in my view. btw The teacher was perfectly correct, Jesus is not an historical figure. but a fictional one. It would be like writing a topic on King Aurthur, - not historical either - a fictional character in a story book. The school backed down and the student is left with misinformed education.
The real and rather frightening story about the death of freedom in England: "The bill marks the end of true parliamentary democracy; it is as significant as Congress abandoning the Bill of Rights", writes John Pilger http://www.newstatesman.com/200604170017
...."Blair has demonstrated his taste for absolute power with his abuse of the royal prerogative, which he has used to bypass parliament" Ironic, in light of this thread, that a self-declared devout Christian who only recently brought God into his politics, should want to prejudice democracy in that way.
you are moaning because there is a ban on any religious groups including Christians and other secular groups, from advertising in a library ultimately run by politicians, left right or whatever wing . But you want me to "get real" when Blair, a self proclaimed Christian who brought his God into the politics of Government , then starts to dismantle the mother of Parliamentary Democracy? You are bothered about adverts in a library? But you are not bothered about Blair? Why? Because he is a "great guy" Why? Because he is a Christian breaking down democracy? sheesh. Get real yourself dude.
Far left ? You have got to be joking. And what is a 'quasi socialist' anyway ? Where do you get this stuff from. Blair is hardly any different from some of the neocon nut cases in Washington in terms of foreign policy and has just the same authoritarian inclinations in domestic policy. He differs on global warming, but that's about it.